Notes to accompany "Discipleship - Emotional Health , Week 7 "

Understanding the principle of Incarnation

Martin Luther King:  “Letter from a Birmingham jail.”

“The Word became flesh and blood, and moved into the neighbourhood.”

                            John 1: 14.  The Message

Jesus’ life teaches us the principle of incarnation – entering another’s world, holding on to yourself, and living between two worlds.

1.  Entering another’s world

If you and I are to be Jesus’ disciples then we need to learn to listen.  To really love someone we have to listen to them.

James 1: 19

But listening, really listening, doesn’t come naturally to us.

Unless people do something with what they hear in a talk within three days it gets forgotten or remains as information.

Reflective listening

2. Holding onto yourself

John 13: 2–5

Jesus knew who He was and so He had no problem humbling Himself to wash the disciples’ feet.

Leonard Zelig

The key to true discipleship is to develop our relationship with God.

From that place we can serve, reach out to others, knock on doors, be misunderstood because we know who we are in Christ.

3.  Living between two worlds.

Jesus hung between two worlds, heaven and earth.

When you and I choose to incarnate we hang between our world and the world of another.  It costs time, energy and disruption.  It’s messy.  But it’s walking the path Jesus took and it does bear fruit

Film:  Dead Man Walking

The sign of the Holy Spirit at work is supernatural love, not gifts or results.

John 13: 34-35

Will you and I commit ourselves to the process of Discipleship day by day, asking the Holy Spirit to help us?